Actually undefeated Joe Cason ready to break out of the pack at Strikeforce Challengers 17

After his dreams of football stardom came crashing down, he picked up kickboxing on the request of an acquaintance. Then he got addicted, got good, and needed to spread his wings at a bigger gym.

That gym was Duke Roufus’ Academy in Milwaukee, and now that he’s working with the big boys, his goal is to keep things rolling against another former footballer, Ovince St. Preux (10-4 MMA, 4-0 SF), whom he meets tonight at Strikeforce Challengers 17.

The two square off on the event’s main card, which airs on Showtime (11 p.m. ET/PT) and takes place at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

Cason isn’t actually the one who got the ball rolling. That role goes to his mom, who nudged him into wrestling at a young age alongside his cousin. Mom did the same for football, and then for track. But the gridiron offered the biggest opportunity for Cason, and he eventually found himself in line to play middle linebacker for the University of Northern Iowa.

Pumping iron between practices, Cason met Russell O’Connell, a martial artist and teacher that taught nearby. O’Connell nudged him to try kickboxing, and he turned the offer down.

“I was like, ‘No, I don’t really want to do that,'” Cason told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

But misfortune soon after made him reconsider that statement. After losing eligibility to play football, he was admittedly “down in the dumps,” trying to figure out where his life was headed, and gave kickboxing a shot.

“I kind of just wanted to focus on school and maybe possibly go back,” Cason said of his decision. “I tried it, and it was like a drug. He just showed me a different lifestyle. The people I was around was just phenomenal. It was like a snowball effect. It just kept on going. The more it rolled, the more I liked it.”

Eventually, he got to that point where he was no longer prey to the more experienced folk in the gym but the predator. O’Connell told him he would eventually have to move to another gym.

“I stumbled upon Duke’s, went up there for a week, introduced myself to Pat Barry and Duke,” Cason said. “I was like shaking. But after the first week, I was so hooked.”

He was not a big fish at that gym. There was Barry, a former K-1 kickboxer turned UFC fighter, Roufus, and Matt Mitrione, a former defensive tackle with the NFL. He was beaten like a pinata, but that only fed his addiction.

“Mentally, I was just like, ‘I have to come back,'” Cason said. “‘I can’t achieve anything if I don’t come back.’ I had a good program back home, but to succeed and to do what you need to do to bang and to be tough and to actually get punched instead of just going into a little ball – to actually defend yourself, moving and going with the flow – Duke was where I needed to be. I kept on coming more often.”

Cason started taking fights – a lot of them – and blowing through the competition. All first round stoppages, and all of them with strikes. A loss in his second professional fight? He said it never happened.

“It’s actually 8-0,” Cason said of the 9-1 ledger he carries on one popular fighter database. “We looked online, and I never had a loss in Lacrosse, Wisc.”

So Cason is technically undefeated when he steps into the cage against St. Preux, a fighter coming off a seven-month layoff after an insanely busy stretch of three fights in three months. A former defensive end at the University of Tennessee, St. Preux knows the disappointment of seeing dreams fall by the wayside, and he’s trying to make a name for himself in MMA, as well.

Strikeforce Challengers 17 is Cason’s first big-show opportunity after a first-round TKO of UFC vet Sean Salmon. He’s proven that he can hang with the big boys at Roufus’ gym, but now he has to do it under the lights.

He’s confident, of course, that he’s been nudged in the right direction with his second career.

“MMA is something I would say in practice is a team thing,” Cason said. “At the end of the day, it’s just you and another guy fighting, and you better listen to your coach. You just have to let things go the way they need to go.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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